Opinion Writing + Fire Fighters {FREEBIE}

This week, we've been working on opinion writing. We've been learning about responsibility and the students recently read several stories about fire fighters. So, this week they have been working on an opinion piece about why fire fighters are important. The activity, like everything else, is from our reading program, but I thought I'd spruce it up so that it looks super fabulous in the hallway. A bunch of students are still working on theirs, but the ones that are done look fantastic!

One teacher saw what I was doing and, at first, was surprised that I was stupid brave enough to do something outside of the reading program. She is, much like I am, a little uninspired by the curriculum, I believe. Maybe she'll be able to help me come up with some cute and clever ways to bring some life to the activities we are required to do. The students are so much more engaged and motivated by activities like this one!

I love that this student built in some of our vocabulary from this week!

As you can see, they were asked to finish their writing with a second opinion about what people should do to thank fire fighters. I love that this boy is going to give them a prize!

We were going to put the writing behind the fire hydrants, but I realized then no one would be able to see what we wrote!

If only our reading program was aligned so that we did activities like this during more relevant weeks - like, oh, I don't know, Fire Prevention Week? If you're interested in using this now or tucking it away for a later date, download them free by clicking here for the fire hydrant or here for the writing paper!

I absolutely love how they turned out! What do you all think? Do any of you need to work within a reading program? What do you do to make the curriculum your own?

Cabin Summer Fever

I don't know about everyone else, but as a second year teacher, being locked out of my classroom has been one of the most torturous experiences of my life. Okay, I'll try not to be too dramatic, but, in all seriousness, it has been incredibly difficult. Aside from the fact that I feel like there is so much more I can do for my students than whatever it was I did last year - it truly was a blur - I'm changing grades and changing rooms. There is so much I could be doing if only I was allowed in my school. Other teachers who I've Facebook stalked kept up with over the summer have talked about how they feel miserable because they went to the store and caved and purchased school supplies. I laugh when I see Facebook statuses to that effect. If only they knew how few days into summer it was when I first started hitting up stores for school things. Truth be told, it's all I can do to make myself feel useful. I even taught summer school to try to quell the feeling, but nothing.

If I were to pretend I joined a Teacher's Anonymous group this summer (think AA), then Pinterest would have been my Sponsor, doing it's best to keep me out of the classroom. We've become best friends, and I'm going to try to post some of the projects that I've done thanks to Pinterest's help to keep my teaching withdrawal under control. Without further adieu, I present to you my story sticks!

These story sticks are inspired by this post over at Sarcasm 101. I skipped the painting and bought colored popsicle sticks. Painting the sticks would be a great idea if you are looking for a way to fill some time with kiddos, but I just wanted to get mine created. I settled on using many of the characters, plots, settings, and extra items from the original post and added some of my own. Throughout the school year, we may add new sticks to the collection based on books that we read in class.

These sticks will be in my 'writing center' for Daily 5. I don't have an area where my friends are required to sit when they do Work on Writing, but I will have an area where I keep items like this to inspire writing ideas. When my friends are having trouble coming up with an idea of what to write about, they'll be able to randomly chose one popsicle stick of each color and create a story using those ideas.

The yellow sticks have characters on them, the red ones have a problem, the green ones have a setting, and the blue ones are sort of a mystery item that my friends can incorporate into the story however they would like.

I'd love to think of a way to create sticks like this to inspire my friends to write non-fiction works. Common core - and with it, my district - is very heavily focused on making sure that students are able to write informative pieces. Maybe I could do one color as text type (list, recipe, directions, letter, information, brochure, advertisement, etc.), one color can be audience (kids, adults, students, teachers, etc.), and one color can be subject. I'll have to keep thinking and see if I can work anything out. If you have any ideas, shout them out in the comments!

Keep watching for more of my summer projects.